hang back

It's the same with every other family we see all week: the parents ask the questions and the children hang back, taking it all in.

The very excess of her eagerness alarmed her, and she began to hang back.

Shall we, His children, hang back and thwart Him, just in the hour when He has put the victory in our hands?

The lady, finding that her lover continues to hang back, dries her tears, and very properly gets married to another man.

He dashes across the river which separates the two armies, although his followers hang back.

When the horse found that he could not hang back, he bolted.